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Lynne Carroll is an American psychologist and author of numerous articles and book chapters on sex and gender minority issues.

Background

Carroll was born circa 1957. Carroll obtained a master’s and a doctoral degree in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. Carroll is board certified by The American Board of Professional Psychology in Counseling Psychology.

While serving as a professor of psychology, Carroll authored a textbook, professional articles, book chapters, and papers and posters on diverse topics at national and international professional conferences.

Carroll has practiced as a psychologist in Florida and Maryland and as a counselor in community agencies and university settings in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

Carroll taught at the University of North Florida and at University of South Florida.

PY8827 Florida board certified diplomate in Counseling Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology Graduated 1985

Resources

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NPI 1578999249

Notes

Counseling transgender, Transsexual, and Gender-Variant Clients

By Lynne Carroll, Paula J. Gilroy, and Jo Ryan

Source: Journal of Counseling & Development; Spring 2002, Vol. 80 Issue 2, p131, 9p

A journal of the American Counseling Association

Republished at transgendermap.com with kind permission of the authors and publisher.


The emergent consciousness and political activism within the transgender community has important implications for the field of counseling. In the current paradigm, the focus has shifted from using surgical and hormonal interventions and thereby enabling transgender persons to “pass” within the traditional gender binary of society to affirming the unique identities of transgender persons. To prepare counselors, counselor educators, and counseling supervisors for this important challenge, the authors describe the evolving nature of the transgender community, discuss mental health issues and counseling interventions for use with transgender clients, and present a case study detailing the progression of counseling with 1 transgender client.

Despite the recent focus on multiculturalism and diversity within the counseling field, the transgender population has been given insufficient attention in research and in counselor training. Although gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues are beginning to receive much needed attention in multicultural texts and professional journals (e.g., the 1998 special issue in The Counseling Psychologist, the recent publication by the American Psychological Association titled Handbook of Counseling and Psychotherapy With Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients, by Perez, DeBord, & Bieschke, 2000), discussion of transgender issues is rare in such publications. For the most part, mental health practitioners’ views about transsexuals, transvestites or cross-dressers, and others with transgender status have “not been informed by objective empirical research” (Fox, 1996, p. 31). Consequently, counselors are ill- prepared to meet the needs of such clients. The purpose of this article is to inform counselor educators, counselors, and supervisors about the salient clinical issues that arise when working with transgender clients. Specifically, the following areas are addressed: (a) the emerging and evolving definition of the transgender community, (b) the politicization of the transgender movement, (c) clinical issues and interventions for use with transgender clients, and (d) the presentation of an actual case that details the progression of personal therapy with a transgender client.

EVOLVING DEFINITIONS

The term transgender was coined in the late 1980s by men who did not find the label transvestite adequate enough to describe their desire to live as women (Prosser, 1997). Alternately, the term transsexual was deemed inappropriate because many nontraditionally gender-identified persons did not necessarily want to reconfigure their bodies surgically and hormonally and did not share the desire to “pass,” or to fit into normative gender categories of male and female. Included in the full spectrum of people with nontraditional gender identities are pre- and postoperative transsexuals, cross-dressers or transvestites, intersex persons, and those who are disinterested in passing. Among the many terms used interchangeably to describe this community are transgender persons, gender-variant persons, and trans persons. For consistency in this article, we use transgender persons and its variations.

Today, the continued proliferation of identifying terms within the transgender community, including gender-bender, gender outlaws, gender trash, gender queer, transsexual lesbian, and so forth, reflects the diversity within this community as well as the ongoing struggle for self-definition. Novelist Leslie Feinberg (1998), who is transgender and an activist for this community, observed that “our lives are proof that sex and gender are much more complex than a delivery room doctor’s glance at genitals can determine, more variegated than pink or blue birth caps” (p. 5).

For many counselors, these variations in terms and identifications within the transgender community are confusing. We have found Eyler and Wright’s (1997) “nine-point gender continuum” (p. 6) to be a helpful framework for us to organize our understanding of the multiplicity of gender identifications that exist. Eyler and Wright’s continuum depicts possible gender identities ranging from “female-based” identities to “male-based” identities, with “bigendered” identities (defined as alternating between feeling/behaving like a woman and feeling/behaving like a man) in the center.

Attempts to estimate the prevalence of transgender persons have been problematic because such efforts have been based on counting persons who request surgical reassignment of their sex and who therefore would very likely be considered transsexuals (Ettner, 1999). Ettner (1999) maintained that the prevalence of persons with “gender dysphoria,” defined as psychological discomfort with one’s biological sex, is “grossly underreported” (p. 28). She indicated that estimates vary from a range of 3% to 5% to a range of 8% to 10% of the general population. Whatever the figures, it is likely that mental health care providers will encounter at least one transgender client at some point in their professional career (Ettner, 1999).

THE BIRTH OF THE TRANSGENDER MOVEMENT

As Parlee (1998) and Denny (1992) noted, the emerging political activism and organization of the transgender community is both the cause and the consequence of several recent sociocultural events including (a) the closing of university-affiliated gender clinics and subsequent opening of private clinics(Reader’s note. According to Cole, Denny, Eyler, & Samons, 2000, the disaffiliation of universities from their respective gender clinics was in large part precipitated by the release of a scientific publication by J. K. Meyer & Reter, 1979, which reported no improvement in the lives of patients after sex reassignment. The report was later discredited.); (b) the organization of the 1992 International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy to fight for the legal and social rights of transgenderists; (c) the First International Conference on Gender, Cross-Dressing and Sex Issues in 1995; (d) the demonstration on behalf of the rights of infants born with ambiguous genitalia, who routinely undergo corrective pediatric surgery, by the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), at the 1996 meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Boston; (e) the publication by ISNA of the newsletter titled Hermaphrodites With Attitude; (f) the formation of TOPS (transgender Officers Protect and Serve for transgender police, firefighters, military, etc.); and (g) the formation of Gender PAC (political action committee), the first transgender political education fund. Several authors (e.g., Denny, 1997; Gagne, Tewksbury, & McGaughey, 1997; Whittle, 1998) also attributed much of recent transgender activism to the increasing use of cyberspace. The plethora of Web sites and chat rooms has provided possibilities for transgender persons to communicate and support one another with anonymity. The media attention given to this issue and the visibility of transgender persons in movies and popular culture (drag queen RuPaul and the Lady Chablis, star of the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Eastwood, 1997) have enabled activists to challenge public intolerance and grow in self-confidence and affirmation.

Perhaps more than any of the aformentioned events, the publicity surrounding the hate crimes perpetrated against transgender persons has stimulated, mobilized, and activated the transgender community. Indeed, most, if not all, transgender persons know only too well the consequences of straying from compliance with the definition and appearance of what is considered “normal” gender expression. Gagne and Tewksbury (1998) observed that transgender persons who are neither masculine nor feminine must deal with “the ubiquity of the binary system’s dictate that all social actors ‘do gender and do it right’” (p. 100). Such persons are truly on the margin of society and are at most risk for social ostracism and discrimination. As Bornstein (1994) noted,

There is most certainly a privilege to having a gender. Just ask someone who doesn’t have a gender, or who can’t pass, or who doesn’t pass. When you have a gender, or when you are perceived as having a gender, you don’t get laughed at in the street. You don’t get beat up. You know which public bathroom to use, and when you use it, people don’t stare at you or worse. You know which form to fill out. You know what clothes to wear. You have heroes and role models. You have a past. (p. 127)

In 1993, the death of Brandon Teena, a female-to-male (FTM) transgender person, captured the headlines and was the focus of a popular film titled Boys Don’t Cry (Peirce, 1999). Brandon was brutally raped and murdered after two male acquaintances discovered that he was biologically female. The death of the transgender woman Tyra Hunter, who was left unattended by paramedics at the scene of a car accident after they opened her pants and discovered that she had a penis (Stine, as reported by Parlee, 1998), horrified and outraged many in the transgender community. Leslie Feinberg (1998), a lesbian, described being near death and refused treatment by a physician in the emergency room of a hospital because of “hir” (pronounced like “here”) gender expression. (Feinberg expressed a preference for the term “hir” because it blends the pronouns him and her.)

As a result of such sociocultural phenomena, many in the transgender community have rejected the use of such clinical terms as gender dysphoria. The use of diagnostic terms contained in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), such as transvestic fetish and gender identity disorder, were also rejected because they seem to pathologize and dehumanize persons with nontraditional gender identities. The medical and psychiatric communities are viewed with suspicion by many in the transgender community because they have historically served as regulators and gatekeepers in the gender transition process. Beginning in 1979, persons seeking hormonal therapy or sex reassignment, or both, were required to seek counseling and adhere to a series of procedures defined in “the standards of care,” developed by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (W. Meyer et al., 2001). These standards dictated that hormonal and surgical candidates receive counseling and obtain official letters of recommendation by qualified mental health professionals. Those interested in surgical reassignment were also mandated to live as their desired gender for approximately 1 year (called “the real life experience”) prior to surgery. Many now seek to “define themselves rather than asking or allowing themselves to be defined by helping professionals,” and thereby “do as little or as much as they wish to their bodies” (Denny, 1997, p. 37). For example in 1993, at the Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy, the International Bill of Gender Rights had specifically included the right to “freedom from psychiatric diagnosis and treatment” and thereby reflected the desire by many not to have to conform to a prescribed regimen dictated by the medical and psychiatric establishments (i.e., Standards of Care of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association; W. Meyer et al., 2001).

THE CRITIQUE OF PASSING

Although many transsexuals are able, with the aid of hormonal and surgical interventions, to successfully pass as their desired gender without detection, it is important to note that others are less successful in doing so. Either the medical procedures are too costly and painful or their basic body morphology makes their attempt to transition more noticeable to others. It is partly for this reason that many transgender activists (e.g., Feinberg, 1998; Stone, 1991) have advocated that transsexual persons “come out” and identify themselves as transgender and, in so doing, “begin to write oneself into the discourses which have been written [about us]” (Stone, 1991, p. 299). On the basis of his extensive interviews with persons with nontraditional gender identities, Hill (1997) noted that the majority preferred to identify themselves as “transgender” and did not want to “reedit” their biographies or to “pass” in mainstream society. As Feinberg (1998) stated, “We are oppressed for not fitting these narrow social norms, and we are fighting back” (p. 5). Bockting (1997) observed that by affirming their identities as either transsexuals or transgender persons, persons with nontraditional gender identities can alleviate the shame, isolation, and secrecy that often accompany attempts to pass as a desired gender.

IMPLICATIONS FOR COUNSELING

The emergent transgender consciousness and political activism emanating from this community have important implications for the field of counseling. Treatment issues no longer center on assisting “gender dysphoric” persons in their adjustment to their new gender but include the possibility of affirming a unique transgender identity (Bockting, 1997). In this paradigm shift, the focus is not on transforming transgender clients but rather transforming the cultural context in which they live. To assist counselors, counselor educators, and supervisors with this challenge, we adapt the multicultural counseling competencies described in Sue, Arredondo, and McDavis (1992), Sue et al. (1982), and Sue and Sue (1999) to address the crucial counselor attitudes, knowledge, and skills that are needed for work with transgender persons.

Counselor Attitudes

We believe that clinicians need to rethink their assumptions about gender, sexuality, and sexual orientation and to adopt a “trans-positive” or “trans-affirmative” disposition to counseling. A trans-affirmative approach necessitates that counselors affirm transgender persons; advocate for political, social, and economic rights for the transgender; and educate others about such issues. Such an approach is similar to the practice of “sex-positive” therapy (Queen, 1996) and gay-affirmative therapy with gay men, lesbians, and bisexual persons and requires that, first and foremost, counselors, supervisors, and researchers should recognize that they may not only have a role in alleviating the emotional distress of clients who challenge the binary gender system but may also be responsible for contributing to or exacerbating it. Counselors must be sensitive to the fact that the medical and psychiatric establishments have long histories of pathologizing transgender persons. Ettner (1999), for example, has observed that counselors have communicated reductionist either-or messages, such as counseling clients out of sex reassignment procedures because of “somatically inappropriate” body types, facial features, and so forth. In their qualitative study of MTF transsexuals, Gagne et al. (1997) found that the majority reported having been actively involved in psychotherapy and indicated that they were pressured by their therapists to come out to others and appear as women. In these cases, therapists may fail to take into account the possible repercussions, such as violence and harassment, that may ensue if clients are not adequately psychologically, financially, and emotionally prepared for such a rapid transition. There are still incidents of counselors who adamantly believe that transsexual people are “fundamentally homophilic but cannot consciously accept their sexual orientation” (Fagan, Schmidt, & Wise, 1994). In contrast to the common stereotypical assumption that transgender persons are gay or lesbian, the clinical literature has within the last several years reflected the reality that many transsexuals are bisexual (Bolin, 1988; Denny & Green, 1996). Denny and Green, for example, observed that many postoperative transsexuals (persons who have completed the surgical reassignment process) find bisexual partners attractive because they are not exclusively focused on gender as a determinant of sexual and emotional attraction.

Counselor Knowledge and Skills

To help counselors build an adequate knowledge base for understanding transgender issues in counseling, they must have information regarding the political, historical, and psychological contexts in which transgender clients live. Counselors need to become familiar with the evolving terminology and politics of the transgender movement. Because the growth of transgender studies was partly facilitated by the use of autobiographies of transgender persons (Parlee, 1998), training efforts should incorporate such narratives. We recommend that counseling professionals read such biographical texts as Stone Butch Blues (Feinberg, 1993) and Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us (Bornstein, 1994) and general texts, such as Transgender Warriors: Making History From Joan of Arc to RuPaul (Feinberg, 1996), Confessions of a Gender Defender: A Psychologist’s Reflections on Life Among the transgender (Ettner, 1996), and My Gender Workbook (Bornstein, 1998). Such films as Paris Is Burning (Livingston, 1991), Ma Vie En Rose (Berliner, 1997), The Brandon Teena Story (Muska & Olafsdottir, 1998), Boys Don’t Cry (Peirce, 1999), Outlaw (Lebow, 1994), and periodicals such as Gendertrash, Transgender Tapestry, and Chrysalis Quarterly are also helpful in exploring the culture of transgender people. As Parlee (1998) pointed out, the opportunities created by academics “working outside positivist research traditions, using methods that allow transgender persons to speak for and about themselves to researchers they trust” (p. 131) has permitted a more complex level of theorizing about gender than ever before.

We advocate that counselors familiarize themselves with the burgeoning of postmodern analyses across many academic disciplines including sociology, literature, and philosophy. The postmodern deconstructionist movement critiqued the belief in “universal troths” and acknowledged that some identities are socially constructed with the purpose of privileging some categories and not others (Layton, 1998). Those analyses and the subsequent emergence of Queer and Transgender studies opened up new possibilities for academic counseling to challenge traditional binary notions of sex/gender. Adhering to the work of Foucault (1980), “queer” theorists believe that discourse, which refers to the use of language as a form of social practice, typically places people in different power positions. Foucault insisted that the discourse of sexuality, the discourse that defines “the homosexual” as a separate species, is a discourse of power. Perhaps one of the most influential contemporary theoreticians is Judith Butler (1990) whose text, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, argued against the view of gender as a biological given. She contended that feminine or masculine behaviors are performative and are the by- product of cultural norms.

It is essential that counselors working with the transgender population have adequate knowledge of local, regional, and national support networks for the transgender community. The significance of collective organizing to enhance self-esteem in this population has been documented (Lombardi, 1999; Mason-Schrock, 1996). In Mason-Schrock’s qualitative study of support group interaction, he viewed this community as performing an integral function in preoperative transsexuals’ narrative construction of the “true self.” Lombardi reported that the greater the social network, the greater the opportunities for members to talk about gender issues with one another. As Parlee (1998) pointed out, the growing sense of community serves to challenge the pathologizing medical community and the violence and discrimination that have arisen both in the past and the present.

It must also be noted that despite the trend in transgender communities to build coalitions between subgroups like cross-dressers, intersexed, MTF transsexuals, FTM transsexuals, and so forth, tension and differences within the transgender community sometimes interfere in this process. Many authors (e.g., Bornstein, 1998) have commented on the sometimes uneasy alliance between the gay and lesbian community and the transgender community. Lorber (1998) observed, “despite attempts of queer theorists to include lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and hermaphrodites under one transgressive category, they themselves have broken up into multiple groups with different political goals” (p. 436). Halberstam (1998) noted, for example, the tension between FTM transsexuals and lesbian feminists. It is important that clinicians not assume that all transgender persons have the same consciousness about gender identities. For example, in Gagne and Tewksbury’s (1998) study of transgenderists (the majority of their volunteer sample consisted of preoperative MTF transsexuals and cross-dressers), most desired to refigure their bodies in such a way as to pass as women. Only a minority of those in their sample expressed a desire to live as transgenderists and to break out of the traditional gender binary.

Bockting (1997) advocated that counselors assume a client-centered approach. Given the societal discrimination that transgender persons must continually confront, the issue of trust is paramount when working with such clients. For this reason, constructivist therapy approaches are particularly helpful in working with transgender clients. Laird (1999) advocated that practitioners assume a narrative stance in which clients fully tell their own stories unburdened by the prior assumptions of the therapist about gender and sexuality. Basically, counselors need to create an atmosphere in which the larger cultural narratives concerning heterosexism and gender are deconstructed. Laird recommended adopting an “informed not knowing” stance (Shapiro, 1996) in which the counselor leaves “behind her own cultural biases and pre- understandings, to enter the experience of the other” (Laird, 1999, p. 75). Laird also advocated that therapists bring the stories of their clients to the professional literature and into the political arena.

We recommend that counselors working with transgender clients strike a balance between facilitating client self-discourse and incorporating more directive interventions. Ettner (1999) advocated that mental health professionals who work with the transgender population possess what she called “cognitive flexibility” and that they adapt a more directive, holistic style to therapy. Effective counseling with this population also requires not only that counselors possess effective clinical skills but also that they be adept at consultation, referral, and case management. Frequently, the counselor’s role is one of clarifier, aiding clients in distinguishing between sexual fantasies, sexual attractions, and gender identity (Denny & Green, 1996) and in recognizing the full spectrum of gender identities and options that such persons have in terms of partial or complete change in primary or secondary sex characteristics (Bockting, 1997). Counselors may need to explore with their transgender clients the “merits of various physical changes in the context of the individuals’ identity development with an emphasis on personal comfort and well-being” (Bockting, 1997, p. 51).

Clinical Issues

transgender persons seek counseling for a variety of presenting issues including depression, alcoholism and other substance abuse, fetishism, inability to perform at school or work, and physical abuse from parents or peers (Denny & Green, 1996). Because of the intense discrimination that transgender persons experience, feelings of low self-esteem and depression may be especially intense. As previously noted, counselors have historically assumed gatekeeping functions regarding the gender identity process. As a result of negative reaction to this role, there is the possibility that transgender persons may be less than forthcoming with counselors about the severity of their depression. Counselors need to consider the possibility that such symptoms constitute ways of coping and may be the by-products of the discrimination and prejudice that transgender persons experience in today’s culture. Another important issue that is particularly germane to the transgender population concerns the lack of knowledge about HIV risk and safe sex (Bockting, Robinson, & Rosser, 1998). Previous studies have indicated that HIV/AIDS has already significantly affected transgender persons. Bockting et al. (1998) observed that many transgender persons do not identify themselves as persons who engage in high-risk sexual behaviors. Attention must also be paid to issues of relationship violence and personal safety. As Bockting et al. noted in their focus groups with transgenderists, MTF transsexuals are especially vulnerable to sexual assault because of their lack of experience with sexual advances by biological males. The interested reader should consult the following texts for further information concerning counseling issues and interventions with transgender clients: Gender Blending (Bullough, Bullough, & Elias, 1997); Gender Loving Care: A Guide to Counseling Gender-Variant Clients (Ettner, 1999); Counseling in Genderland: A Guide for You and Your transgender Client (Miller, 1996); and the book chapter titled “Issues of Transgender” by Cole et al. (2000).

CASE STUDY: T IS FOR TERRY AND FOR transgender

Because narratives of transgender persons have played such an integral role in the growth of the transgender rights movement, we chronicle the experiences of Terry (fictitious name), a transgender client who presented for therapy with the second author. Terry first came to the counseling center in 1998 for an intake interview. Terry was born a biological male in the northeastern United States and was named by her parents after a popular professional athlete. This decision by her parents points out how even at birth, they had definitive expectations of their “son,” expectations which included that “he” excel at sports and be drawn to stereotypically “masculine” pursuits. Once she entered elementary school, Terry immediately became aware of her gender difference. She quickly discovered how she differed from her peers by the assaults on her nontraditional gender identity. On a regular basis, she faced taunts, ridicule, and isolation from her peers. Terry became aware that the social penalties imposed against feminine boys (boys who exhibited gender-atypical qualifies) were rigidly enforced. Taunts on the playground escalated into more severe persecution in junior high school when Terry was frequently called “faggot” and “queer.” At this point in time, when Terry was 13 years old, being differently gendered was perceived as synonymous with homosexuality by Terry’s peers. In addition to enduring the onslaught of epithets, Terry was the victim of frequent physical harassment including punching, pushing, and kicking. Terry’s sense of isolation reached a peak during these years as she Searched for role models of other differently gendered individuals. She felt ostracized from her peers as well as her own family as a result of her efforts to adjust to life on the gender margins. Throughout junior high school, she felt suicidal and battled with an ongoing sense of depression, isolation, and fear of physical harm. Although Terry’s family recognized her gender-atypical behaviors from an early age, they struggled both to sympathize with and to protect Terry by encouraging her to conform. For example, Terry was prodded to try out for Little League during second grade Terry was not interested in Little League but felt compelled to comply With their wishes in order to fulfill the “correct” role of a boy.

Due to a change in schools, Terry’s high school experience was more positive, but her sense of desolation and detachment continued to escalate. Terry would frequently scour the campus library desperately searching for nuggets of information regarding “transvestism” and “sex changes.” The long, rich history and culture of the transgender community was not readily available to Terry, and this added to her sense of alienation. A critical element in Terry’s survival was a very positive, therapeutic relationship that enabled her to negotiate gender identity in the face of a hostile environment. Terry’s first therapeutic experience lasted throughout her 4 years in high school. After 2 years in therapy, Terry came to identify herself as a transsexual and actively desired sex reassignment surgery. Because of the overwhelming pressure to conform, Terry was not yet aware of the full spectrum of options available to her along the gender continuum. At that time, Terry believed the only way for her to survive in society was to surgically and irrevocably alter her body.

Once Terry started her undergraduate career, she began to discover more resources regarding a specifically transgender identity. Terry discovered that the specificities of transgender experience allow for a more fluid expression of gender and an opportunity to blur the lines of the traditional gender paradigm. Terry started voraciously reading the literature from the burgeoning transgender liberation movement. She became increasingly comfortable with defining herself as a “gender outlaw,” an individual whose gender expression defies easy categorization within American society’s bipolar system. In 1993, during Terry’s freshman year, Terry started to be referred to as “she.” (Ironically, Terry, like many transgender persons, does not support the use of traditional gender designations. The fact that alternative designations such as “hir,” “s/he,” “ze” and “sie” are not common knowledge or popularly used illustrates the extent to which the gender binary is so embedded in our culture and the way that language can function as a barrier to transgender expression, empowerment, and liberation.) Although she made the decision not to surgically or hormonally alter her own body she resolved to fully support others who choose hormonal therapy and surgical reassignment. Terry has decided that perhaps in the future, she may even take advantage of these options. This is further evidence of the fluidity of gender to Terry and her desire not to be categorized in an essentialist way.

When Terry, now a graduate student, presented for counseling with the second author, she identified the following treatment goals: (a) to become more comfortable with her transgender identity in her new midwestern surroundings, (b) to learn techniques to manage symptoms of depression, and (c) to increase social interaction. At first glance, these goals seemed reasonable and attainable. These same goals were frequently identified by graduate students who have relocated, are not yet familiar with the area, and have no social network. Terry was, however, diagnosed with major depressive disorder soon after beginning therapy. The severity of symptoms seemed to fluctuate with Terry’s feelings of isolation. There were times when it was physically and psychologically exhausting for Terry to perform even the most routine tasks. During these times, Terry experienced frequent suicidal ideation. Terry coped with these thoughts and feelings by creating a safety plan in therapy and by talking with supportive friends and allies. Although Terry continues to struggle with symptoms of depression, she has found the coping mechanisms learned in therapy to be useful in managing her suicidality.

The cognitive behavioral techniques that might otherwise have been used to treat her depressive symptoms and facilitate goal achievement were not sufficient with Terry Terry’s cognitions were not distorted; she was not assuming others were staring, they were; she was not worried needlessly about being verbally assaulted, she had been assaulted; she was not imagining “transphobic” reactions from peers and faculty-there was concrete evidence of such reactions. Who would not be depressed under such horrendous circumstances? Depression management techniques were and are effective to a point, as are pharmacological interventions. But despite such efforts, Terry’s reality would remain the same. The society in which she lives is often an oppressive, threatening, and unsafe place for a transgender person.

Outside of counseling, Terry struggled in her social interactions and in making close friendships. At the age of 26, Terry often felt like she was revisiting the “ghosts” of junior high school because petty insults and abusive epithets continued to be a common experience for her. In general, transgender individuals are constantly bombarded with the messages that they are “freaks” who do not belong. Terry often described herself as a “voiceless body” because the physical nature of her gender expression was brazenly apparent on campus. Terry’s height and “masculine” physical features seemed to conflict, in their eyes, with her “feminine” dress, speaking, and comportment. Terry was often recognized or “read” as a biological male who did not meet the rigid gender role requirements of her transphobic surroundings. The campus, located in a rural midwestern community; is overwhelmingly White and conservative. The conventional attire of many of the students, as well as their conformity to rigid gender role standards, left Terry feeling perpetually on the margins. The irony of the situation was that Terry was visible, but only in a negative manner. The physicality of her transgender expression was noticeable and provoked hostile conduct followed by behavior aimed at minimizing Terry’s existence. Terry experienced harassment in a variety of places on campus, including the student union and the library. Because of the level of ostracism she faced, she often internalized the negative comments aimed at her. This affected her ability to trust and to take risks to initiate and establish relationships.

Throughout the counseling process, Terry was encouraged to seek out a community of accepting individuals. At her counselor’s urging, Terry sought out progressive campus groups, such as the Gender Equality Association, whose focus was to advocate for gender equity on campus. Although the original mission of the association was focused on gender equity, Terry worked with the group to expand the definition of “gender equality” to include transgender and gender-variant constituencies. Thus, gender equality took on a more sophisticated valence and fostered a transpositive atmosphere for all members. Terry began to initiate other social contacts for her own personal and political development With some prompting, she became involved in various campuswide projects, including the development of a women’s center for the university. Terry was also encouraged to make contact with individuals whom she perceived to be supportive, like those professors and staff members who displayed pink triangles (e.g., one of the more popular and widely recognized symbols of the gay community, with historical roots in Hitler’s concentration camps) and pink “safe space” ally signs on their office doors and windows. Through these contacts, Terry was able to access trans-affirmative individuals and groups outside the campus community.

Although Terry was able to develop some mutual, healthy relationships as a result of reaching out, her efforts were also met with rejection and hostility. In counseling, Terry’s feelings of rejection and hurt after these experiences were validated. She was assured that it was quite possible that her identity as a transgender person might at least be partially to blame for being socially rejected. She worked very hard at not allowing others’ phobic reactions to define her worth and to develop strategies for optimizing her social success. Even if Terry was rejected, she was able to perceive “reaching out” as progress and an investment in her future. Terry’s willingness to take risks was facilitated by consistent, positive validation in therapy. For her, the counseling center constituted a safe zone, a place to which she could return and where she would feel the support and encouragement to persevere. Safe zones for transgender individuals are defined as places where gender diversity’ is not only accepted but celebrated. The whole rainbow of gender expression is affirmed and welcomed.

Despite positive gains, Terry still experiences depression, isolation, and frequent harassment. She earned her degree despite the “transphobia” and because of the “transpositive” persons she encountered there. Terry believes there is a curious fascination with transgender bodies in our culture, but there is a dearth of genuine interest in the personal and political realities of gender oppressed people. Often she feels like a “deviant” body perpetually on display, a body that effectively has no voice. This sense of feeling stripped of subjectivity, of being turned into an object, makes Terry feel powerless. Therefore, venues for educating the campus community are vitally important to Terry because they enable her to recover the passionate voice that is so often stolen. Terry continues to be an advocate for gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender and feminist causes and issues. In addition to producing a video on gender diversity, she has conducted countless workshops and delivered many presentations to university and community organizations. This work has helped to heal the scars of her childhood because she feels like she is ushering in a new era of gender freedom. In addition to recognizing the value of speaking up for her empowerment, Terry is a strong believer in the personal benefits of a therapeutic relationship.

On the basis of our clinical experiences, we find that the essential elements of therapy with Terry as with many other transgender persons include listening, empathy, the assumption of an “informed not knowing” stance, and the provision of a safe zone. As is consistent with a constructivistic approach to counseling, listening is critical because it allows clients to tell their story and to be heard. The story is not told only once; the story continues each day with new social context, but key themes of pain and isolation echo throughout Terry’s narratives. Repeated validation of feelings is paramount to the therapy process because of the rigidity of the gender system in society and the subsequent oppression this creates.

CONCLUSION

As supervisors and counselors, we believe that an understanding of transgender clients’ life histories is pivotal to comprehending the complexity of issues brought to therapy. Our experiences working with transgender clients have been unlike any other in our professional careers. Our respective knowledge bases regarding transgender issues have naturally expanded and our abilities as clinicians have improved. After overcoming our initial ignorance and misinformation, we are now comfortably familiar with relevant resources for both client and counselor. These improvements, however, are fairly standard after exposure to a new presenting problem or clinical population. Most significant to us has been the tremendous personal growth we have achieved through our relationships With transgender clients. Because of our research and clinical experiences with this population, we take more time to really listen to all of our client’s stories. We have learned to no longer take for granted the fact that we can walk across our respective campuses, take in a movie, or shop for groceries without verbal abuse or harassment. We no longer take for granted the feeling that we belong-whether to our families, our places of employment, our social circles, or society as a whole. The extent of “gender privilege” is both alarming and ubiquitous. Our consciousness of transphobia has been raised since learning of the intensity and frequency of harassment directed against differently gendered individuals. Although the sexual orientation of many gay, lesbian, bisexual people may not be immediately apparent to others, many transgender persons do not or cannot “pass” (conceal the fact that they are differently gendered) and, therefore, are the most frequently targeted group for social persecution. We do not think any of us in the majority who fit into the normative gender categories of male and female can imagine the paradoxical situation of being very obvious and yet invisible at the same time. Perhaps, most of all, our experiences with the transgender have taught us, as Laird (1999) suggested, to realize our serious professional obligation to take the stories of our transgender clients into the professional literature and into the streets to enable a more humane and just world for all gender identities.

Author Note. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the late Terrianne Summers for her feedback on an earlier draft of this article. Terrianne was a transgender activist and educator who was murdered on December 12, 2001 in front of her home in Jacksonville, Florida. Initial police reports indicated that her shooting was the result of a robbery attempt, although nothing was taken during the incident. This article is dedicated to the memory of Terriane Summers and her tireless efforts to advocate for transgender fights and educate others about transgender issues.

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Bornstein, K. (1994). Gender outlaw: On men, women and the rest of us. New York: Random House.

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Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.

Cole, S. S., Denny, D., Eyler, A. E., & Samons, S. L. (2000). Issues of transgender. In T. Szuchman & E Muscarella ([ids.), Psychological perspectives in human sexuality (pp. 149-195). New York: Wiley.

Denny, D. (1992). The politics of diagnosis and a diagnosis of politics. Chrysalis Quarterly, 1, 9-20.

Denny, D. (1997). Transgender: Some historical, cross-cultural, and contemporary methods and methods of coping and treatment. In B. Bullough, V. L. Bullough, & J. Elias (Eds.), Gender blending (pp. 33-47). Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

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Ettner, R. (1999). Gender loving care: A guide to counseling gender-variant clients. New York: Norton.

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Feinberg, L. (1993). Stone butch blues. A novel. New York: Firebrand.

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Laird, J. (1999). Gender and sexuality in lesbian relationships: Feminist and constructionist perspectives. In J. Laird (Ed.), Lesbians and lesbian families: Reflections on theory and practice (pp. 47-89). New York: Columbia University Press.

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Lorber, J. (1998). Embattled terrain: Gender and sexuality: In M. M. Ferree, J. Lorber, & B. B. Hess (Eds.), Revisioning gender (pp. 416-448). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Mason-Schrock, D. (1996). Transsexuals’ narrative construction of the “true self.” Social Psychology Quarterly, 59, 176-192.

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Queen, C. (1996). Bisexuality, sexual diversity, and the sex-positive perspective In B. A. Firestein (Ed.), Bisexuality: The psychology and politics of an invisible minority (pp. 103-126). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Sue, D. W., Bemier, J. G., Durran, M., Feinberg, L., Pedersen P., Smith, E., & Vasques-Nuttall, E. (1982). Position paper: Cross-cultural counseling competencies. The Counseling Psychologist, 10, 45-52.

Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (1999). Counseling the culturally different: Theory and practice (3rd ed.). New York: Wiley.

Whittle, S. (1998). The trans-cyberian mail way. Social & Legal Studies, 7, 389-408.

APPENDIX

Glossary of Terms

Please note that the following terms and their definitions are not necessarily universally accepted. Variations exist both within and outside trans communities in the usage and interpretation of these terms.

Cross-dresser: An individual who dresses in clothing that is culturally associated with members of the “other” sex. Most cross-dressers are heterosexual and conduct their cross-dressing on a part-time basis. Cross-dressers cross-dress for a variety of reasons, including pleasure, a relief from stress, and a desire to express “opposite” sex feelings to the larger society.

Drag King: A term usually reserved for individuals who identify themselves as lesbians and who cross-dress for entertainment purposes in lesbian and gay bars.

Drag Queen: A term usually reserved for individuals who identify themselves as gay men and who cross-dress for entertainment purposes in lesbian and gay bars.

Gender: A complicated set of sociocultural practices whereby human bodies are transformed into “men” and “women.” Gertder refers to that which a society deems “masculine” or “feminine.” Gender identity refers to an individual’s self-identification as a man, woman, transgender, or other identity category.

Gender bender: An individual who brazenly and flamboyantly flaunts society’s gender conventions by mixing elements of “masculinity” and “femininity.” The gender bender is often an enigma to the uninitiated viewer, who struggles to comprehend sartorial codes that challenge gender bipolarity. Boy George, a popular culture icon, was often referred to as a “gender bender” by the press.

Gender dysphoria: A term used by the psychiatric establishment to refer to a radical incongruence between an individual’s birth sex and their gender identity. An individual who is “gender dysphoric” feels an irrevocable disconnect between their physical bodies and their mental sense of gender. Many in the transgender community find this term offensive or insulting because it often pathologizes the transgender individuals due to its association with the DSM-IV.

Gender identity: see Gender.

Gender outlaw: A term popularized by trans activists such as Kate Bornstein and Leslie Feinberg, a gender outlaw refers to an individual who transgresses or violates the “law” of gender (i.e., one who challenges the rigidly enforced gender roles) in a transphobic, heterosexist, and patriarchal society.

Gender queer: A term that refers to individuals who “queer” the notions of gender in a given society. Gender queer may also refer to people who identify as both transgender and queer (i.e., individuals who challenge both gender and sexuality regimes and see gender identity and sexual orientation as overlapping and interconnected).

Gender trash: A term that calls attention to the way that differently gendered individuals are often treated like “trash” in a transphobic culture.

Gender variant: A term that refers to individuals who stray from socially accepted gender roles in a given culture. This word may be used in tandem with other group labels, such as gender-variant gay men and lesbians.

Intersex: Formally termed hermaphrodites, individuals termed intersex are born with some combination of ambiguous genitalia. The Intersex movement seeks to halt pediatric surgery and hormone treatments that attempt to normalize infants into the dominant “male” and “female” roles.

Queer: Queer is a term that has been reclaimed by members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities to refer to people who transgress culturally imposed norms of heterosexuality and gender traditionalism. Although still often an abusive epithet when used by heterosexuals, many queer-identified people have taken back the word to use it as a symbol of pride and affirmation of difference and diversity.

Queer theorist: An individual, usually an academic, who uses feminism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism and other theoretical schools to critically analyze the position of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals in cultural texts.

Sex: Separate from gender, this term refers to the duster of logical, chromosomal, and anatomical features associated with maleness and femaleness in the human body. Sexual dimorphism is often thought to be a concrete reality, whereas in reality the existence of the intersex points to a multiplicity of sexes in the human population.

Sexuality: An imprecise word that is often used in tandem with other social categories, as in race, gender, and sexuality. Sexuality is a broad term that refers to a cluster of behaviors, practices, and identities in the social world.

Sexual orientation: This term refers to the gender(s) that a person is emotionally, physically, romantically, and erotically attracted to. Examples of sexual orientation include homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual, and asexual. transgender and gender-variant people may identify with any sexual orientation, and their sexual orientation may or may not change during or after gender transition.

Trans: An umbrella term that refers to cross-dressers, transgenderists, transsexuals and others who permanently or periodically dis-identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Trans is preferable to “transgender” to some in the community because it does not minimize the experiential specificities of transsexuals.

Transgender: A range of behaviors, expressions, and identifications that challenge the pervasive bipolar gender system in a given culture. This, like trans, is an umbrella term that includes a vast array of differing identity categories such as transsexual, drag queen, drag king, cross-dresser, transgenderist, bi-gendered, and a myriad of other identities.

transgender lesbian: An individual, regardless of biological sex, who identifies as both transgender and lesbian. This could include male-to-female transgenders who are sexually attracted to women, or to biological females who identify as lesbians and who often “pass” as men or who identify to some degree with masculinity or with “butch.”

Transgenderist: Coined by Virginia Prince, this category refers to an individual who dis-identifies with their assigned birth sex and lives full time in congruence with their gender identity. This may include a regime of hormone therapy, but usually transgenderists do not seek or want sex reassignment surgery.

Transphobia: The irrational fear and hatred of all those individuals who transgress, violate, or blur the dominant gender categories in a given society. Transphobic attitudes lead to massive discrimination and oppression against the trans, drag, and intersex communities.

Transsexual: An individual who strongly dis-identifies with their birth sex and wishes to use hormones and sex reassignment surgery (or gender confirmation surgery) as a way to align their physical body with their internal gender identity.

Transvestite: An older term, synonymous with the more politically correct term cross-dresser, that refers to individuals who have an internal drive to wear clothing associated with a gender other than the one that they were assigned at birth. The term transvestite has fallen out of favor due to its psychiatric, clinical, and fetishistic connotations.

~~~~~~~~

By Lynne Carroll; Paula J. Gilroy and Jo Ryan

Lynne Carroll is an associate professor and codirector of the Counselor Education Program at the University of North Florida, Jacksonville.

Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to Lynne Carroll, Counselor Education Program, Schultz Hall, University of North Florida, 4567 St. Johns Bluff Road, South, Jacksonville, FL 32224-2676 (e-mail: lcarrollATunf.edu).

Paula J. Gilroy is a psychologist at the University of Northern Iowa Counseling Center, Cedar Falls.

Jo Ryan is a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire, Durham.

Copyright of Journal of Counseling & Development is the property of American Counseling Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

Source: Journal of Counseling & Development, Spring2002, Vol. 80 Issue 2, p131, 9p

Republished at transgendermap.com with kind permission of the authors and publisher.

Dana Beyer is an American physician, political candidate, and transgender rights activist.

Beyer was involved in protests of the transphobic 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen.

Background

Dana Beyer was born February 9, 1952 and grew up in New York City. Beyer earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1974 and a medical degree from  from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1978. Beyer worked as an eye surgeon before going into activism and politics.

Philanthropic work includes Gender Rights Maryland and Equality Maryland.

References

.transgendermap.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2019/05/willow-arune-dana-beyer.pdf

Resources

Dana Beyer (danabeyer.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Margaret Ann McGhee (born 1942) is an American technology executive. Shewas a prolific contributor on the support group dedicated to “autogynephilia” in early 2004, before group founder Willow Arune inadvertently got the group banned from Yahoo in 2005 for trolling and defamation.

Background

Her 2009 autobiography states:

My adolescence, growing up in Texas in the fifties, was a nightmare of guilt, self-hate, confused emotions and sexuality – and, oh yeah, don’t forget the abusive step-mother. At fifteen I left home and headed to California where my grandparents graciously supported me while I completed high school. After graduating I moved out on my own and started working my way through college. Over the years and despite the confusion I gradually developed a male persona that gave me sufficient happiness. Perhaps to kill off that inner female once and for all, I married a smart and attractive wife who soon gave us a wonderful son. This marriage only lasted a few years however as my inner female was becoming restless. After our separation the “do your own thing” sexually permissive spirit of California in the sixties became my great escape. Those were heady times when I grew my hair long, resisted the war, smoked lots of dope and wore bell-bottoms and flowing shirts. My inner female was wishing for flowing skirts as well but I kept her repressed enough that my male existence was still the only face I presented to the world.

Over the next several years I started migrating northward. With stops in Santa Cruz and Eugene, the farther north I went the more I liked it. I eventually established a good life in Bellingham in the wet, cool and intensely green northwest corner of Washington state. I met and married a wonderful woman there. After a few years we moved to Idaho and together raised my son from my earlier marriage. Life was good. Except for the occasional stealth cross-dressing episode my inner female was safely tucked away from everyone. Then one day in 1997, after 22 years of marriage, my wife was killed by a drunk driver. In the weeks and months that followed, the woman inside me firmly reclaimed her place in my life. It was an overwhelming force that I could not resist. It just felt right. I became convinced that my destiny was to become as close to a biological female as possible through sexual reassignment surgery. I started down that path including the necessary psychological counseling and a year of HRT (hormone replacement therapy). However, as time went by I realized that I was not ready to completely abandon my male side which I had nurtured so carefully all those years and had become an important part of who I was. Also, I was reluctant to surgically alter my body unless I was absolutely sure that my happiness required it. I couldn’t confidently come to that conclusion and so I stepped off that train.

At the time I wasn’t sure how all this would work out but by following my feelings as honestly as I could and not analyzing things too much I seem to have found a happy middle ground for now, where I spend as much time as I wish in either persona. That’s not to say that my life is all happiness and bliss these days juggling dual external identities but it is far better than hiding my true feelings from those close to me. The few problems I face these days are practical ones, not ethical. I do try to stay focused on my many other interests in life and living each day to its fullest which is always a wise plan anyway. Aside from exploring human nature, some of these interests include playing the guitar and making music with friends, fly fishing, cooking and outdoor photography. A large part of my happiness these days is no doubt due to my marriage, going on three years now, to a wonderful and intelligent woman who appreciates both of us as much as we do her. And also, to the many new friends I have found since moving back to Washington.

http://geocities.com/margimcghee/ (2009)

Margaret has an interest in evolutionary psychology, a field which heavily underpins The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey. Bailey and Anne Lawrence are the primary proponents of the “autogynephilia” diagnosis created by Ray Blanchard.

Margaret has written an summary of the controversy available on her site:

Autogynephilia, a Narrative

http://www.geocities.com/margimcghee/Articles/AG.htm

also in PDF

http:// www.fusionair.com/margismugs/ag.pdf

2005 message

Margaret sent the following on 7 October 2005:

This evening I was browsing tsroadmap and was surprised to find a page there dedicated to some information about me. This was regarding some posts that I made in the past to the now long defunct autogynephila forum.

http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/margaret-mcghee.html

I seem to be described as being a supporter of Blanchard’s theory of autogynephilia.

I did spend a lot of time at the ag forum as you say. I did try to be as friendly as possible with the other members of the ag forum. However, my presence there was to politely argue against the concept.

While there I presented counter-arguments. I confronted both Anne Lawrence and Michael Bailey with those arguments. Much of the substance of my counter-arguments were taken from information that I found following links from your website.

Willow Arune referred to me as one of the non-believers – who was allowed to stay (probably because I did not personally attack anyone there even though I was frequently attacked myself). I was accused more than once by other members of being in cahoots with you, Susan James and Lynn Conway – or perhaps being a spy for you  Finally, they got fed up with me and I was kicked off. 

While there, I think I learned a bit and gained some understanding of the psychology of the transsexuals who supported the theory. That’s one reason I hung out there. I couldn’t understand how anyone could go through life feeling that badly about themself – and I wanted to understand it better.

In any case, I am definitely not a supporter of Blanchard’s theory. Nor do I believe that transsexuality or gender variance is in any sense a pathology. In the interest of accuracy, and because I would not want anyone to get the wrong impression it would be helpful if you corrected your listing.

Feel free to check me out further or ask me any questions you like. I wouldn’t expect you to change anything you’ve written unless you were certain that it was correct.

I do have an interest in evolutionary psychology. That may be why you assumed I supported Bailey. I’d say my understanding of the intersection of evolution and transsexuality is more along the lines of what Joan Roughgarden writes in Evolution’s Rainbow.

Yes, I believe human transsexuality is the result of evolution, as is every single aspect of human nature. I believe it is a perfectly natural outcome – to be celebrated, not pathologized.

I have not been active in any ts online groups for some time now. My interests have lately been in more general aspects of identity. I am working on an hypothesis that relates worldview to group conflict, alliance and other social phenomema. One reason I find this interesting is the firsthand experience I gained about the autogynephilia conflict from having in-depth discussions with members of the ag forum.

Thanks in advance for your attention to this matter,
Margaret McGhee

My response:

Hi Margaret–

Thanks for writing. When all this was going down, I found the best thing to do was to document everyone who got involved and sort it out later. This led to a pretty quick vectoring of the institutions from which all this BBL stuff was emanating, and how Bailey operates (science by press conference). Ultimately, Lawrence and Bailey are both self-hating [trans] chasers with different strategies for getting closer to the objects of their desire. This brings profound bias to the knowledge they produce and their writings about that knowledge.

I knew Arune would eventually be seen as a crank, based on Arune’s long trolling history on Usenet. Arune is simply replaying some old injury again and again in an attempt to control it.  Lisanne Anderson aka Lori Anjou eventually was seen that way, too, as well as Deni aka Suki aka Alejandra aka Steffie and all the other old school web trolls inhabiting that group. As I note here below the chart:

http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/autogynephilia-support.html

“Please note that several of the people listed above have expressed concern about the term, and do not necessarily agree it is a legitimate diagnosis.” 

That was meant to include you.

I also note that you stopped posting after an initial burst of activity, another common pattern as people began to see that it was a troll site. By the time Arune’s incompetence led to that group’s demise, it was basically a carbon copy of Arune’s Usenet “contributions” before and since: cut-and-paste jobs from other publications, plus slander and baiting of people Arune doesn’t like.

So, now we have a record of a bizarre attempt to create a community around an identity based on a sex-fueled mental illness. Several of the people involved had a similar learning trajectory as I did: my first impression was that “autogynephilia” was a love of self as a woman. I even sent Anne Lawrence a note around the time Lawrence published an introduction to the concept saying that it made sense. As with many others, I did not grasp that this was a paraphilic model which casts our motivations as a sex-fueled mental illness. One of my majors was classical Greek, so I assumed “philia” (friendly love, affection, friendship) could be considered in apposition to “phobia” (panic fear/hatred) and suggested to Dr. Lawrence that my own motivation might be better described as “autoandrophobia,” a hatred of my self as male. It was only when the Bailey book came out that I understood how “philia” was used by these guys.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to include your letter and this response on that page, as well as anything else you’d like to include. I knew a lot of the debate would be ephemeral, which is why I had a “document now, sort out later” philosophy. I wanted a historical record of the contemporaneous response. I still consider this event a turning point in trans history, the beginning of the end for the gatekeeping “authorities” who would medicalize and pathologize us the way they used to with gays and lesbians. Unfortunately, they have some key people in the President’s Council on Bioethics and involved in the DSM-V revision committees, so we are not out of the woods, yet. This will prove to be a decisive turning point in our fight for rights. BBL have done more to mobilize an international coalition of trans activists that anything since the invention of the internet itself.

Thanks again for contacting me! I look forward to hearing back from you.

In February 2006, I got the following note:

Hi Andrea, I mentioned several weeks ago that I would attempt to write an essay describing my experience as a dissenting member of the Yahoo AG-support group and what I thought about it all now. It’s been a major project but I seem to be running out of reasons to revise it further. So, if you want to post a link you are welcome to do that. It’s at:
  
http://www.geocities.com/margimcghee/Articles/AG.htm
 
I’d also be interested in your opinion.

Resources

LINK: Margaret McGhee’s personal site

http://www.geocities.com/margimcghee/indexmm.htm

LINK: Margaret’s theory about two “types” of transsexuals

http://www.geocities.com/margimcghee/Articles/tstheory.htm

LINK: Autogynephilia Redux: A Memoir – The Trans-woman Who Is Me

http://www.geocities.com/margimcghee/Articles/AG.htm

Dallas Denny (born August 18, 1949) is an American author, counselor, and transgender rights activist known for publishing and archiving community resources. Denny is one of the most important transgender figures of the 1990s.

Background

Denny was born on August 18, 1949 in Asheville, North Carolina. Denny earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Middle Tennessee State University in 1974 and a master’s degree from University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1977. Denny also did postgraduate work at East Tennessee State University, Georgia State University, and Vanderbilt University.

Denny worked for the State of Tennessee from 1979 to 1990 as a caseworker and analyst. From 1990 to 2008 Denny worked as a behavior analyst for the DeKalb Community Service Board.

Transgender activism

In 1990 Denny founded AEGIS (American Educational Gender Information Service), later renamed Gender Education & Advocacy. Denny also founded the print journal Chrysalis Quarterly. In 1993 Denny founded the National Transgender Library & Archive.

In the 1990s Denny continued the work of the Erickson Educational Foundation, helped found Atlanta’s transgender Southern Comfort Conference, and directed Fantasia Fair. From 1999 to 2008 Denny was editor of Transgender Tapestry, published by the International Foundation for Gender Education.

Books include:

  • Gender Dysphoria: A Guide to Research (1994)
  • Current Concepts in Transgender Identity (1998)

Honors include:

  • IFGE’s Trinity Virginia Prince Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Real Life Experience’s Transgender Pioneer Award

Letter to National Academies (2003)

Denny sent the following letter to the National Academies regarding J. Michael Bailey’s transphobic book The Man Who Would Be Queen. Denny got the same form letter from Suzanne Woolsey as everyone else.

25 June, 2003

Bruce Alberts, President, the National Academy of Sciences
Harvey V. Fineberg, President, the Institute of Medicine

The National Academies
2101 Constitution Avenue NW
Washington DC 20418

Dear Dr. Alberts and Dr. Fineberg:

I am writing in regard to a recent publication under the National Academies of Sciences imprimatur, namely Michael Bailey’s The Man Who Would be Queen. As you know, Bailey’s book is deliberately provocative and is considered highly offensive by many who have read it. I count myself in this growing number.

Also as you know, Bailey is claiming he is advancing a science-based argument in his deliberately objectional depictions of gay men and transsexuals. However, there is no science in his book, merely sweeping generalizations and grand statements which are not backed up by data or even citations for publications which might contain such data.

Controversial books often serve to advance science, but only when they use carefully considered arguments and present data to convince the reasoned reader of the validity of the author’s arguments. Darwin did this. Thomas Kuhn did this. Even popular works such as the late Stephen Jay Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man discuss actual research and interpret the findings. The Jerry Springer approach used by Bailey informs no one; it serves merely to further polarize an already-polarized issue.

My question to you is: why has the esteemed National Academies of Sciences lent its credibility and dignity to such a discreditable and undignified work as The Man Who Would Be Queen? In this age of reality TV and junk journalism, are you deliberately tarnishing your heretofore respected image– or was someone asleep at the wheel?

Thank you.
Dallas Denny, M.A., Licensed Psychological Examiner (Ret.)

Resources

Dallas Denny (dallasdenny.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey is an American economist and philosopher. McCloskey is also transgender and made a gender transition in 1995 in the midst of a distinguished career, described in the 1999 autobiography Crossing: A Memoir.

In 2003, McCloskey helped lead efforts to combat the academic exploitation of sex and gender minorities following the publication of The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey.

Background

McCloskey was born in 1942 in Ann Arbor, Michigan and studied Economics at Harvard University, earning a Bachelor’s degree in 1964 and a Ph.D in 1970. McCloskey has held appointments at University of Chicago, University of Iowa, and University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2015 McCloskey was named Distinguished Professor of Economics and of History, and Professor of English and of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago, Emerita.

Writings on gender after retirement

McCloskey holds a number of views that are considered conservative within the trans community. In 2019, McCloskey chose to share reflections on gender transition in Quillette, a notoriously anti-trans publication. The comment section is an excellent survey of transphobic talking points from the time.

In 2020, McCloskey signed the so-called Harper’s letter with many prominent gender critical voices, including Meghan Daum, Caitlin Flanagan, Michelle Goldberg, Sarah Haider, Jonathan Haidt, Katie Herzog, Phoebe Maltz Bovy, Steven Pinker, Katha Pollitt, Kat Rosenfield, J. K. Rowling, Jesse Singal, Bari Weiss, Matthew Yglesias, and Cathy Young. Others who signed it who have occasionally raised eyebrows for comments about trans people include Margaret Atwood, Jennifer Finney Boylan, and Gloria Steinem.

In 2021, McCloskey was announced as affiliated with the proposed “anti-woke” University of Austin, along with Bari Weiss, Steven Pinker, Kathleen Stock, Jonathan Haidt, and other gender critical figures. In June 2022, McCloskey and Stock had a “debate” about gender in which they largely agreed with each other.

References

McCloskey D (1999). Crossing: A Memoir. University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0226556680

McCloskey D (2003). Queer Science: A data-bending psychologist confirms what he already knew about gays and transsexuals. Reason. https://reason.com/2003/11/01/queer-science-2/

McCloskey D (2007). McCloskey’s Back-and-Forth with Seth Roberts on the Bailey Controversy. https://www.deirdremccloskey.com/gender/bailey.php

McCloskey D (November 10, 2019). Reflections on My Decision to Change Gender. Quillette https://quillette.com/2019/11/10/reflections-on-my-decision-to-change-gender/

McCloskey D (August 13, 2020) I’m a transwoman who signed the Harper’s letter with JK Rowling. Here’s why. Prospect Magazine https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/im-a-transwoman-who-signed-the-harpers-letter-with-jk-rowling-heres-why

Media

The Rubin Report (December 30, 2016). Trans in Academia, Liberalism, Free Trade | Deirdre McCloskey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UpGbvOTlBE

University of Austin (March 6, 2023). Stock & McCloskey Debate Issues of Sex, Gender, & Identity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gDIBinDN-o

Resources

Deirdre McCloskey (deirdremccloskey.com)

  • Personal site

Prudentia by Deirdre McCloskey (deirdremccloskey.org)

University of Illinois Chicago (https://hist.uic.edu/profiles/mccloskey-deirdre/)

  • Deirdre McCloskey, PhD [History Department]
  • hist.uic.edu/profiles/mccloskey-deirdre/
  • Deirdre McCloskey, PhD [English Department]
  • engl.uic.edu/profiles/mccloskey-deirdre/
  • CV
  • hist.uic.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/268/2018/06/mccloskey-cv.pdf

Cato Institute (cato.org)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)

Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org)

Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.

Barbara P. Nash is a noted American geologist and geophysicist. The mineral nashite is named in Nash’s honor, and Nash reported on 75 new minerals later approved by the International Mineralogical Association.

Nash was also among many renowned transgender scientists who objected to the National Academies in response to their 2003 publication of the anti-transgender book The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey.

Background

Barbara P. “Barb” Nash was born in 1944. Nash earned a doctorate from University of California, Berkeley in 1971. Nash was named Director of the University of Utah’s Electron Microprobe Laboratory starting in 1970. Nash was appointed Professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Utah in 1978. Nash retired in 2019 and was appointed Emerita Professor that year.

The Man Who Would Be Queen letter

May 12, 2003

Bruce Alberts
President, the National Academy of Sciences
The National Academies
2101 Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20418

Harvey V. Fineberg
President, the Institute of Medicine
The National Academies
2101 Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20418

Dear Drs. Alberts and Fineberg,

I am writing to express my deep concern about the National Academies publication of a book by J. Michael Bailey entitled The Man Who Would be Queen. The book reflects poorly on the Academies’ usually high standards for publication. Despite its subtitle of “The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism”, it is nothing of the sort. The author’s approach is entirely unscientific, and his conclusions pose a danger to transgender individuals particularly as the book may be used to influence public policy. Publication by the National Academies Press unfortunately lends both a presumption of academic legitimacy and significant visibility to this work of unsubstantiated personal opinion.

While Mr. Bailey is entitled to his opinions, my major concern is that the National Academies Press would place its imprimatur on this particular book. I shall return to that concern momentarily. I am aware that my colleague Joan Roughgarden at Stanford has already provided a detailed account to you of problems with this book. I won’t go into as much detail here, but I do feel the need to point out the most egregious instances of absence of scientific integrity in the work. 

Mr. Bailey’s book doesn’t even rise to the standard of “junk science”. Junk science at least purports to be scientific by presenting observational data and interpretations made from those data that are expressed in the context of contemporary thought and argument. Mr. Bailey on the other hand eschews traditional data gathering techniques. Rather, he relies on recruiting research subjects (a convenience survey as opposed to more traditional survey instruments) by “cruising” gay clubs frequented by transsexuals who engage in survival sex. No wonder that Bailey later concludes that one of his two classes of transsexuals consists of homosexuals that are commonly engaged in the sex trade. Bailey’s data are anecdotal and subject only to his personal interpretation in which he expresses great confidence in his preface: “Knowing his occupation and observing him briefly and superficially were sufficient for me to guess confidently about aspects of (his) life that he never mentioned…. I know what kinds of activities interest him and what kinds do not.” (p. ix). Is this the standard for data acquisition – conjecture as evidence? It would be as if as a volcanologist I could discern the life history of a rock by noting its glint in the sun and its heft in my hand. There is a reason we invest in mass spectrometers and electron beam instruments. It is to provide tangible, reproducible observations that are ultimately shared and interpreted, perhaps in differing and more enlightened ways by interested parties. Nowhere in Bailey’s book are there raw data or tabulated results of surveys. When survey results are mentioned there is never a reference to the original data source, nor is there a description of sample size, variance or standard deviation. No references are provided to any other studies that are mentioned as supporting evidence. In fact, with the one exception of a 1991 paper by his colleague Ray Blanchard in the list of suggested readings at the end of the book, there are no specific literature references to any other research studies on the subject.

Bailey distinguishes two classes of transsexuals, homosexual and autogynephilic. This distinction is not new with Bailey – it was originally proposed by Ray Blanchard over 20 years ago, and it has enjoyed very little resonance in transgender studies. Mr. Bailey has no trouble distinguishing between the two groups because “Most homosexual transsexuals are much better looking than most autogynephilic transsexuals.” (p. 180). This inelegant dichotomy is simply inadequate to describe the diversity the transgender spectrum and experience. But Bailey has no interest in directly confronting contemporary alternative views. He simply dismisses them. People who disagree with him are liars (“Most gender patients lie,…” p. 172) (…”many autogynephiles provide misleading information about themselves…” p. 175). transgender narratives are not to be trusted and are ignored (“…(transsexuals) tell stories about themselves that are misleading and, in important respects, false.” p. 146). Or his detractors are incompetent (“… sex researchers are not as scholarly as they should be and so don’t read the scientific journals.” p. 176). For someone who neglects to cite the literature, this is an amazing statement.

Bailey concludes that the overwhelming majority of transgender persons are autogynephilic transsexuals, and indicts and stigmatizes that entire group by stating that autogynephilia is a paraphilia linked with masochism, sadism, exhibitionism, frotteurism, necrophilia, bestiality, and pedophilia (p. 171). This is an outrageous and unsubstantiated statement. He further asserts that “…there are two reasons to think that these sexual paraphilias have some causes in common.” His reasons? “Paraphilias occur exclusively (or nearly exclusively) in men. Second, paraphilias tend to go together.” (p. 171). Surely if one were to honestly arrive at such a conclusion, one would feel compelled to supply a more substantial scientific argument than guilt by association.

Throughout the book there is also a consistent theme of homophobia and stereotyping of gay men. For example: “I cannot imitate the gay accent, and I cannot even describe it, but chances are, you know what I’m talking about.” (p. 70). Or, “I often don’t have to hear a man talk or know what he does in order to have a strong suspicion he’s gay. Sometimes it’s enough just to see him move.” (p. 73). These types of statements remind me of anti-Semitic diatribes about how to identify Jews by facial type and speech patterns. 

I won’t take the time here to enumerate the factual errors in the book and the failure to reference or confront contemporary studies that may disagree with the author’s contentions. Science succeeds in part through self-regulation arising from the variable interpretation of observational data. Bailey makes this a daunting task for critics because he provides only his personal opinion based on anecdotal accounts stemming mostly from a limited and self-selecting population. It doesn’t even meet the lowest standards of junk science. It more closely resembles a lengthy op-ed piece. 

As a professor of geology and geophysics for 32 years whose research has been supported by NSF, NASA, DOE and the U.S. Geological Survey, I am confident that I can distinguish good science from bad science. Recently, I have designed a course on transgender studies. Part of the course examines scientific approaches to the phenomenon. Some studies are good, others are not, and students are asked to assess why. The Man Who Would be Queen will not be on the reading list because it lacks any scientific rigor whatsoever and would be a waste of students’ time as well as a source of considerable misinformation. What distresses me is that that the book may be adopted uncritically in courses taught in social sciences or humanities especially because of the imprimatur provided by the National Academies Press and its promotion by the Press. Further the I fear the work may be deemed credible because of the reputation of its publisher, thus facilitating incorporation of its uncritical and erroneous assertions into the formulation of public policy contesting civil rights and social justice for transgender individuals. There is no question in my mind of such an application. As Bailey says, ” “My undergraduate students … are especially hesitant to support surgery for nonhomosexual transsexuals, once they learn about autogynephilia.” (p. 206). 

The promotional materials for the book are unbecoming a professional scientific association. As Presidents of your respective academies, I recommend you take a moment to view the web site of the National Academies Press promoting your book. It is sensational and lurid. The Press says, “the book is grounded firmly in science” and presents a cover showing a pair of hairy legs in high heels. The opening line is “Gay. Straight. Or Lying.” The ad poses the critical question, “Are gay men genuinely more feminine than other men? And do they really prefer to be hairdressers rather than lumberjacks?” And if you buy the book you can read about “Kim, a strikingly sexy transsexual who still has a penis and works as a dancer and a call girl for men who like she-males while she awaits sex reassignment surgery.” It reads more like the headline in a supermarket tabloid rather than what one would expect from the respected press of the National Academies. 

I am reminded of a recent controversy in the social sciences over published research findings in the arena of firearms regulation that had bearing on the formulation of public policy. In 2000 Michael Bellesiles wrote the book Arming America that argued that firearm ownership was far less common in early American history, that the gun culture revered by the National Rifle Association is a recent phenomenon, and their interpretation of the Second Amendment is in error. He received the prestigious Bancroft Prize for his book. Subsequently, inspection of his data revealed that much was fabricated. The prize was withdrawn, and Prof. Bellesiles resigned his faculty position at Emory University. More recently, the source of some statistical data in More Guns, Less Crime (1998) by John Lott, an advocate of arming citizens, has come under scrutiny, and his credibility is currently being questioned despite his highly complex econometric analysis. What made the challenges to these works possible is that the authors presented data, true or false, that were available for scrutiny and evaluation by interested parties. In The Man Who Would be Queen, the reader is not presented with such an opportunity to formulate a reasoned response. 

The National Academies should not be in the business of supporting such unscientific and prejudicial works. To do so can only reflect poorly on the Academies and their scientific integrity. I believe it is only appropriate that the National Academies withdraw their support for the book. 

Sincerely,

Barbara Nash
Professor of Geology and Geophysics

Letter to Chronicle of Higher Education (2003)

Following a puff piece on Bailey in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Nash wrote to the editors, and part of her response was published.

To the Editor:

The Chronicle correctly reports that J. Michael Bailey’s work on transsexuals is anecdotal and lacks data to back up his assertion that all transsexual women are either homosexual men or male sexual fetishists (“‘Dr. Sex,'” June 20). Bailey’s unscientific methodology and his resulting unsubstantiated characterizations pose a threat to transgendered individuals, particularly as his book may be used to influence public policy. … Bailey studiously ignores contemporary research on the etiology of transsexualism and the formulation of gender identity, and he extinguishes the voices of authentic lives. He vilifies as liars the many transsexuals who describe experiences and motivations for gender transition that are inconsistent with his narrow taxonomy. …

While Bailey is entitled to his opinion, the danger lies in his book’s being deemed credible because of the reputation of its publisher, thus facilitating the incorporation of its uncritical and damaging assertions into the formulation of public policies opposing civil rights and social justice for transgendered individuals.

Barbara P. Nash
Professor of Geology and Geophysics
University of Utah
Salt Lake City

Media appearances

Nash appeared in the “Yellowstone” episode of the 2009 series How the Earth Was Made.

Below, Nash talks about her first visit to Utah’s Spiral Jetty in 1994.

References

Whitehurst L (May 17, 2013). University of Utah geologist inspires name of new mineral. The Salt Lake Tribune https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=56323204&itype=CMSID

U News Center (2013). New mineral named for U geologist. https://cmes.utah.edu/news/New%20Mineral%20Named%20for%20U%20Geologist.php

Mineralogical Society of America (2015). Nashite. Handbook of Mineralogy http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/nashite.pdf

Resources

University of Utah College of Mines and Earth Science (mines.utah.edu) [archive]

  • Barbara P. Nash Faculty page [archive]
  • https://www.mines.utah.edu/geo/people/faculty/nash.html
  • https://faculty.utah.edu/u0035233-BARBARA_P_NASH/hm/index.hml [not archived]

Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)

Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.

Paul Varnell was an American journalist and LGBTQ rights activist.

Background

Paul Varnell was born on April 16, 1942 in St. Louis and grew up in the northeast United States. Varnell earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1963, then attended graduate school at Indiana University-Bloomington. Varnell taught at Northern Illinois University before moving into activism and journalism in the 1980s.

Varnell was among that generation’s most notable conservative/libertarian journalists in the LGBTQ community.

Varnell died December 9, 2011.

Selected works

In 2005 Varnell criticized sexologist J. Michael Bailey’s belief that bisexual men do not exist, and he wrote an early critical review of Bailey’s anti-transgender book The Man Who Would Be Queen.

Weird Science: J. Michael Bailey’s ‘The Man Who Would Be Queen’

Originally published July 23, 2003, in the Chicago Free Press.

It’s a shame trees had to be sacrificed in order to print J. Michael Bailey’s controversial new book “The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism.”

Bailey takes a perfectly interesting and reasonable question — what is the relationship between childhood femininity in boys and gay men, and transgenderism — and succeeds only in writing a bunch of speculative and insulting nonsense.

Don’t be fooled by the “science” in the title: There is very little science in this book. It’s not science calling up a two-decades-old research study and declaring it the truth for all time. It’s not science without documentation — there are no footnotes, no references listed and no bibliography.

It’s not science sitting at a bar in Chicago’s gay neighborhood of Boystown talking to gay men and transgenders about their childhoods. It’s not science when someone answers your questions and you don’t like the answers or don’t believe them, so you dismiss the insight as lies, or internalized “femiphobia.”

It’s not science when you write pages about what “perfect” studies would need to be conducted to prove your wanted findings, and then write that, of course, these studies could never be done because of their length and complexity.

It’s not science to simply quote small studies and surveys with no context. It’s not science taking an 8-year-old boy’s cross-dressing issue and basing an entire book on the question of what he may or may not become later in life. And it’s not science or scholarship to praise your son’s ability to spot gay men on the street. It’s not science to base your knowledge of transgender and gay lives on what they say they are seeking in personal ads.

This book is not science. A discussion of ideas, yes. One straight man’s look into an unfamiliar world, yes. Science, absolutely not.

Bailey’s thesis is that there is a connection between femininity in boys and gay men and the desire to change gender. In investigating this he takes a long detour through covering gay masculinity and femininity, stereotypes of gay men and whether gay men are actually more like straight men or women.

Then he declares there are exactly two types of transgenders: homosexual and autogynephile. The former are men who want to change gender because they identify as women and the latter are men who are erotically charged by switching gender. In his limited exploration, Bailey paints an ugly picture of transgenders’ alleged sexual perversity, confusion and relationships. And he makes no effort to consider transgenders who carry on “normal” jobs, friendships, sexual desires, lives, etc.

While the argument Bailey makes is pretty bad, the writing and organization of the book aren’t much better. He never adequately connects the several different strands he’s weaving into a cohesive whole theory. And his personal anecdotes are annoying, not to mention credibility-busting.

This book is not worth reading, even for the controversy. You’d learn a lot more reaching out to someone in the trans community and having a friendly and honest discussion with them about their lives than reading this ridiculous concoction of speculation.

What’s also mystifying is that some reputable authors (Steven Pinker, Anne Lawrence) and literary establishments (Kirkus Reviews, Publisher’s Weekly, Out magazine) gave the book positive quotes, since it doesn’t take much analytical ability to slice through Bailey’s arguments, speculations and assumptions. Also confusing is how an author of Bailey’s apparently reputable credentials can get away with a shoddy publication like this. He is a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, has written for The New York Times and is a well-known sex researcher.

Wisely and appropriately, the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition has called for the National Academy of Science to investigate the book and remove it from under its banner.

Bailey’s Bisexuality Study (2005)

Originally published August 3, 2005, in the Chicago Free Press.

Most of us realize that there are many people who have had sex with both sexes but that that does not necessarily means they feel equal desire for both sexes. As Masters and Johnson wryly observed, “The label of bisexual often means whatever the user wishes it to mean.”

Now a new study published in Psychological Science by Northwestern University psychologist J. Michael Bailey and two Ph.D. candidates claims to advance science by reporting that none of the men in their study of male bisexuals experienced “strong” desire for both sexes and that most experienced much stronger sexual arousal by men than women.

Whether or not Bailey’s conclusions are true, the study fails to demonstrate them effectively. Bailey has repeatedly in the past employed problematic research procedures and this study is no exception.

Bailey and his team recruited 33 “bisexuals” as well as control groups of homosexuals and heterosexuals by advertising in the gay and “alternative” press. They then showed all three groups of men “several” two-minute-long erotic films, including two of two men having sex and two of two women having sex. The subjects’ genital arousal was determined by a device placed around the penis that measured any increased circumference. Bailey says, “For men arousal is orientation.”

It turned out that one-third of each group of subjects had no significant genital arousal at all from the films, which means that either they had no sexual orientation or else the technique for testing orientation was flawed. But Bailey ignored that possibility, simply eliminated the non-responders and used the 22 bisexual who did have an arousal response.

It also turned out too that three of the 25 gay men who had measurable genital arousal were more aroused by the female films than the male films. Bailey should conclude (“arousal is orientation”) that they were heterosexual but does not and does not say why. This interesting fact is buried in a footnote in a manuscript version of the study but I missed it in the uncorrected page proofs Bailey kindly provided.

In any case, the final result was that although all the bisexual men reported equal subjective (mental) arousal to both types of films, all of them “had much greater genital arousal from one sex than to the other” and three quarters of the 22 men had stronger genital arousal from the all-male films than the all-female films.

It is noticeable that there is no mention of heterosexual films – a man having sex with a woman. The study assumes that a film of two women having sex will always generate a heterosexual arousal response but offers no evidence or argument for the claim. No doubt some men are titillated by lesbian sex but whether it is as uniformly effective a heterosexual arousal agent as a heterosexual film seems questionable.

Some bisexual men, for instance, are far more interested in their own performance, their impact on the other person, than the gender of the partner. Masters and Johnson call them “ambisexuals” and C. A. Tripp mentions that some researchers describe them – somewhat inaccurately – as ready to “stick it in anywhere.” If such men are to be aroused by brief films it would more likely be one of a man having sex with another person, male or female, than by a film lacking any male participant. This could help explain the greater number of men aroused by the all-male films.

Since the bisexual men did report substantially equal subjective (mental) arousal to both types of films, someone might wonder if two-minute films were long enough to generate genital arousal particularly for the female films since they presumably did not involve specific arousal cues such as copulatory activity. As psychologist Murray Davis points out, the move from everyday life to erotic reality can take time, the right mental set, and the right cues.

Finally one might wonder if the recruitment ads were specific enough. If Bailey had advertised for men with “equal sexual desire” for men and women he might have obtained a more interesting study group. As it was, he defined “bisexuals” as people with Kinsey ratings of 2, 3 and 4 thus including people with stronger heterosexual responses (2s) and stronger homosexual responses (4s).

One might also wonder if most of the bisexuals solicited through ads in gay publications might lean toward the gay side of bisexuality – which could be why they were reading gay publications and saw the ad. That in turn might help explain the larger number of bisexuals who were more aroused by males than females.

These and related difficulties lead to me wonder why Bailey continues to try to do sex research when he demonstrates so little understanding of the human psychology involved in sex and sexual arousal and seems so unself-critical about research designs that include sample bias, dubious testing procedures, built-in assumptions, unaccountable anomalies, etc. Whatever he is doing, it is not psychology and it is not science.

References

Baim T (December 14, 2011). PASSAGES: Writer, activist Paul Varnell dies. Windy City Times. http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=35183

Reese R (October 15, 2011). Paul Varnell, 1941-2011: Gay activist wrote fiery conservative column. Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2011-12-15-ct-met-varnell-obit-20111215-story.html

Varnell P (August 3, 2005). Bailey’s Bisexuality Study. Chicago Free Press https://igfculturewatch.com/2005/08/03/baileys-bisexuality-study/

Varnell P (July 23, 2003). Weird Science: J. Michael Bailey’s ‘The Man Who Would Be Queen’. Chicago Free Press https://igfculturewatch.com/2003/07/23/weird-science-j-michael-baileys-the-man-who-would-be-queen/

Joanne Herman is a retired American executive and philanthropist. She has been a key figure in developing transgender philanthropic leadership through her work with and support of The Point Foundation, Fenway Health, Outgiving, and Outfest. Joanne was the major funder for the restoration of the 1960s documentary Queens at Heart, a rare color film of trans people living and working in pre-Stonewall Manhattan.

She is also the author of the 2009 book Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not.

Comments on Bailey and Dreger

In 2007, Herman published about historian Alice Dreger‘s attempt to exonerate psychologist J. Michael Bailey for his 2003 anti-transgender book The Man Who Would Be Queen. She wrote for The Advocate, “To focus on the overzealous response of some trans activists is to miss the bigger picture — that transsexuals are fed up with non-trans “experts” claiming to know us better than we do.” Herman added:

“Focusing on the personal attacks against Bailey is like discussing the clashes between protesters and police in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention without emphasizing the incredible wave of social change sweeping the nation at the time. Trans people have reached the point where they are fed up with any nontrans “expert” — not just Bailey — who’s dismissing our opinions. Our view is that, much like a nongay person can’t possibly imagine loving someone of the same sex, a nontransgender person can’t possibly imagine the feeling of living in the wrong gender.”

Later life

In retirement with her wife Terry, Joanne has become a serious bowler, even creating the website Bowling Seriously.

Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not.

References

Herman J (September 4, 2007). Why the Bailey controversy won’t die soon. The Advocate. https://www.advocate.com/politics/commentary/2007/09/04/why-bailey-controversy-wont-die-soon

Resources:

Bowling Seriously (bowlingseriously.com)

Joanne Herman (joanneherman.com) [archive]

Nicola R. Brown is a Canadian psychologist who has worked at Toronto’s CAMH gender clinic. Brown has published resources and consumer information for transgender people, as well as published psychological research, including a book chapter with fired sexologist Kenneth Zucker.

Background

Nicola Ruth Brown was born in 1976. She attended York University, earning a master’ss degree in 2001 and a doctorate in 2006. Brown then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in the Victims of Violence Program. Brown has served as staff psychologist in the Gender Identity Clinic for adults at CAMH. Brown also has a private practice.

According to a profile of Brown on the 2018 CAMH website, “Clinical interests include sexual orientation and gender identity concerns. Research interests include clinical decision-making and best practice models for working with trans people, adaptive processes of the significant others of trans people, and the social determinants of health.”

While working at Central Toronto Youth Service, Brown published the first edition of Families in TRANSition in 2008. This guide provides information and resources for families with a gender-diverse or transgender member.

Collaboration with Ken Zucker

Brown and Zucker published the chapter “Gender Dysphoria” in the 2014 book Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy, edited by Yitzchak M. Binik and Kathryn S.K. Hall. The chapter heavily favors Zucker’s point of view on pathologization and cures of trans youth, devoting only one paragraph in the chapter to affirmative care for children. They claim affirmative care that is the consensus among pediatricians is merely the model “that receives the most media attention, and it certainly dominates Internet discourse.” Zucker was fired from CAMH a year after publication.

References

McIntosh C, Brown NR (2023). Psychotherapy with trans and gender diverse people. In H. Crisp & G.O. Gabbard (Eds.), Textbook of Psychotherapeutic Treatments (2nd ed), pp. 667-680. American Psychiatric Association Publishing. ISBN 9781615373260

Brown NR. (2021). Intimate partner violence. In A. Goldberg & G. Beemyn (Eds.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies. SAGE Publishing. ISBN 9781544393841

Kallivayalil D, Levitan J, Brown NR, Harvey MR (2013). Preliminary findings from a qualitative study of trauma survivors in treatment: Changes in personal narratives. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 22 (3), 262-281. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2013.743942 

CAMH (2018). CPA Accredited Clinical Psychology Residency Program 2018-2019 Academic Year. http://www.camh.ca/-/media/files/camh-psychology-residency-brochure-20182019-academic-year—october-18-2017-version-pdf.pdf

Zucker KJ, Brown NR (2014). Gender Dysphoria. In Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy, Fifth Edition. Binik YM, Hall KSK, eds. Guilford Publications. ISBN 9781462513895

Brown NR, Kallivayalil D, Mendehlson M, Harvey MR (2011). Working the double edge: Unbraiding pathology and resiliency in the narratives of early-recovery trauma survivors. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024969

Brown NR (2011). Holding tensions of victimization and perpetration: Partner abuse in trans communities. In J. Ristock (Ed.), Intimate Partner Violence in LGBTQ Lives. Routledge. ISBN 9780415998796

Brown NR (2010). The sexual relationships of sexual-minority women partnered with trans men: A qualitative study. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 561- 572. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-009-9511-9

Brown NR (2009). “I’m in transition too”: Sexual identity renegotiation in sexualminority women’s relationships with transsexual men. International Journal of Sexual Health, 21, 62-78. https://doi.org/10.1080/19317610902720766

Brown NR, Miller L (2008). Families in TRANSition guide. Second edition (2016): https://ctys.org/wp-content/uploads/Families-in-TRANSition.pdf

Brown NR (2005). Queer Women Partners of Female-to-Male Transsexuals: Renegotiating Self in Relationship. [unpublished doctoral dissertation], York University, UK. https://bac-lac.on.worldcat.org/oclc/191239034

Brown NR (2001). Women’s passionate friendships. Typescript Masters Thesis, York University.

Resources

Dr. Nicola Brown (nicolabrown.ca)

Rainbow Health Ontario (rainbowhealthontario.ca)

CAMH (camh.ca)

Central Toronto Youth Service (ctys.org)

  • Y-GAP health (PDF)

Donna Martina Cartwright (born October 4, 1946) is an American journalist and labor activist. Cartwright served as a copy editor for The New York Times for about 30 years, transitioning on the job in 1997 and retiring in 2006. Cartwright was named to the NLGJA LGBT Journalists Hall of Fame in 2014.

Background

Cartwright was born in Hackensack, New Jersey. Cartwright was also involved in creating and leading some of the most important trans rights organizations, including:

  • Pride at Work
  • New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA)
  • Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey
  • National Center for Transgender Equality
  • TransEpiscopal
  • Gender Rights Maryland

2000 media criticism

In 2000, Cartwright published a piece on how cis journalists were “Trivializing and Silencing Transgender People in Queer Media.” Cartwright wrote:

Transgender people, long marginalized in the gay and lesbian community and “written out” of its history, have been making a modest comeback in recent years. Many queer organizations routinely recognize our presence through the use of such phrases as “the GLBT community” to describe their missions or constituencies; that some of these “natives” might be capable of uttering words comprehensible to civilized people too often seems beyond the imagination of the “normalized” queer writer. Funny, gays and lesbians were seen in just such terms, not so long ago 
.

Both this renewed visibility and its problems are reflected in a recent work of queer history, Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney’s book. Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (Simon & Schuster, 1999) which covers the period from the late 1960’s until the late 1980’s.
Clendinen and Nagourney pay serious attention to many of the controversies over the place of trans- gender people in the queer movement over the last 30 years. Unfortunately, they treat us largely as a disempowered, voiceless “other,” passive objects of history rather than subjects.

DAYS OF FURY
By many accounts, 1973 was a difficult year for transgender queers: a rising tide of separatism in the lesbian/ feminist movements culmi- nated in an explosion of hatred and hysteria at the West Coast Lesbian Conference in Los Angeles in April; two months later, similar tensions erupted at the New York City Pride March.

Out for Good gives a compelling picture of these events: in L.A., Beth Elliott, a lesbian male-to-female transsexual, one of the conference organizers, was scheduled to sing as part of the conference’s opening ceremonies. She had been at the center of a bitter dispute over her transsexuality in the San Francisco chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis in late 1972.

Elliott is a fascinating figure; unfortunately, Clendinen and Nagourney seem oblivious to the pos- sibility that she might have had some- thing of value to contribute to their account. She is not quoted in Out for Good, and she says that they never interviewed her. By her own recollec- tion, she is the first “out” transsexual lesbian feminist. She transitioned at the age of 19, and soon thereafter was invited to join the Bay area Daughters of Bilitis chapter — at that point, the membership felt her transsexuality was not a disqualification.

“Wanting to make the freedom I was experiencing safer and available to more women,” she says, she began doing volunteer work at the chapter’s office. After several months, in the fall of 1971, she was elected Vice- President in a two-candidate race.

In the summer of ’72, however, trouble appeared in the form of lesbian separatists who began to press their perspective on the chapter as a whole. Tensions rose over various issues, from Elliott’s transsexuality to demands that the editor of the chap- ter newsletter be brought under offi- cial oversight. In the fall of that year, Elliott ran for re-election as Vice- President and was defeated in a cam- paign in which her transgender his- tory may have been a tacit issue. A few months later, in a separate vote, transsexuals were ruled ineligible for membership.

Out for Good skews history a bit in its account of the struggle in the San Francisco D.O.B. The book says Elliott’s “demand to be admitted into the San Francisco chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis had torn the group apart. The D.O.B. had devoted eighteen months to arguing about whether there was a place in the Daughters of Bilitis for a transsexual, before finally and bitterly voting ‘No’.”

But Elliott’s account, which is supported by a look at back copies of Sisters, the San Francisco D.O.B. ‘s magazine, is rather different. The battle took up at most a few months, not 18, and it was not over her “demand to be admitted,” but over her expulsion.

Perhaps Clendinen and Nagourney relied on the recollection of someone involved in the conflict, decades after the fact. All the more reason to have balanced their sources.

Cartwright added:

Not that this incident is exactly unknown territory for queer writers. Pat Califia, in her book Sex Changes (1997) quotes a member of the chap- ter who “had actually been present at the stormy meeting where [Elliott] was ousted 


“This doesn’t feel okay to me/ she said. ‘She worked harder than anyone else in D.O.B. She gave a lot to that organization. There was no good reason to kick her out. She hadn’t done anything wrong except be a transsexual. You wouldn’t believe some of the vile and vicious things other women said to her. And she just sat and listened to all of it, kept her dignity and answered them back without losing her temper or calling anybody names/”

A few months later, some of Elliott’s enemies in the San Francisco battle attended the conference in L. A. and created an uproar when she went on stage to sing. They demand- ed that she leave, the performance was brought to a halt, and the issue was debated for hours and ultimate- ly put to a vote.

Out for Good says there was a slim majority in favor of allowing Elliott to sing, but according to contemporary sources, the margin was overwhelming. Barbara McLean’s “Diary of a Mad Organizer” in the Lesbian Tide confer- ence issue says the women voted three to one to hear Elliott, while The Advocate (May 9, 1973) also calls the vote “overwhelming.” The separatists and some others in the audience walked out. According to The heritage of sexual sophistication.”

Advocate, Elliott later received a standing ovation from “most of the 1,200 women present.”
The next day, Robin Morgan, the writer and editor who later became a leading figure in the rightward drift of radical feminism, devoted part of her keynote address to a vicious, hateful attack on transgender women. In it, she suggested that we enjoy being harassed on the street (doesn’t that sound sickeningly familiar?), said that we “parody female oppression,” accused us of “leeching off women” and demanded that we be excluded from women’s space.

In a three-page account of the controversy at the conference. Out for Good quotes Morgan at length, and, somewhat more briefly, Jeanne Cordova (editorial coordinator of Lesbian Tide and an organizer of the conference) in Elliott’s defense. But neither Elliott nor any other transsex- ual is quoted; are we not up to speak- ing for ourselves? Elliott still lives in California, and eventually managed to become active again in the lesbian and leather communities; surely she might have been asked about her feelings concerning that day. And it is not exactly a daunting task to reach her; this writer managed it without great difficulty.

And Out for Good is not exactly neutral in tone. In addition to the factual errors and omissions, consider this description of Elliott: “She might have been the only woman in the room wearing a skirt or a gown — except for the fact that Beth Elliott wasn’t a woman. Beth Elliott was a preoperative transsexual, a man in the process of trying to become a woman, who, to complicate things, claimed to be a lesbian.”

At another point. Out for Good refers to “the near-riot that Beth Elliott had caused.” Well, it takes more than one person to cause a riot, and all Beth Elliott did was accept an invitation to sing. It was who she was, not what she said or did, that “caused” the near-riot.

Elliott, who was also a founding member of the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club and who played an active role in the California Committee for Sexual Law Reform, paints an interesting picture of the early post-Stonewall queer move- ment. She says that many lesbians “judged individual transsexual women on the content of their character,” adding that “there were a lot of lesbians who had no interest in the legendary political correctness of the 1970’s.”

She also notes that many of the early-70’s lesbian communities were “very sex-positive 
 and the ‘sex purity’ movement never managed to control the lesbian community as a whole.

Tapestry article (2004)

In 2004, Dallas Denny published an exposĂ© about “autogynephilia” activist Anne Lawrence in Transgender Tapestry. In it, Denny revealed that Cartwright had a similar inappropriate experience as I did with Lawrence. Cartwright and I were both hit on after being invited to Lawrence’s home under the pretense of taking vaginoplasty result photos for Lawrence’s consumer site:

James also describes an incident of alleged inappropriate boundary crossing in Lawrence’s photography of James’ genitals for Lawrence’s website www.annelawrence.com. James says Lawrence was inappropriately seductive while James had her clothes off. Lawrence denies this.

There’s more to the story. A year or so ago, Donna Cartwright, another transsexual woman, described to Tapestry an experience virtually identical to that reported by James. At that time we chose not to go forward with an unverified allegation. This allegation has now been substantiated in the form of James’ complaint. Lawrence denies this incident also.

For a more detailed account, see Anne Lawrence incident with Donna Cartwright.

References

Staff report (July 23, 2014). NLGJA names LGBT Journalist Hall of Famers, Excellence honorees. http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/NLGJA-names-LGBT-Journalist-Hall-of-Famers-Excellence-honorees/48421.html

[Editors] (2004). Concerns about Dr. Anne Lawrence. Transgender Tapestry #105, p. 13. https://archive.org/details/transgendertapes1052unse/page/12

Resources

NLGJA (nlgja.org)

Digital Transgender Archive (digitaltransgenderarchive.net)

Solidarity (solidarity-us.org)

Healthcare NOW

Donna Cartwright speech (2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BWBm0k8Y0M